This Act became notorious because it provoked the “Boston Tea Party”, a symbolic moment on the pathway of Britain's colonies in north America towards independence. The tangled causes of the Tea Act are therefore the more worth consideration. Firstly the consumption of tea by the 1.75m American colonial subjects exceeded the amount consumed by the entire population of Great Britain. Secondly, the revenue from importing tea from China was crucial to the British state, firstly because it was heavily taxed by customs (at 112% ad valorem until 1784, then reducing to 20%), secondly because it was much smuggled and the annual income to the British exchequer from confiscating smuggled tea amounted to some ú200,000, thirdly because …

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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Tea Act". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 December 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4192, accessed 23 November 2024.]